I'm writing this to say that I am quitting. After 5 plus years and many many hours wasted on here, it's time for me to focus on the responsibilities in life that I have right now and not waste so much time on here. Allow me to say a few things first. I'll preface by saying that what I'm going to suggest are things that I almost never do and this will sound very hypocritical. I'm well aware, no need to tell me. Here goes.

Let me start with the "negative". The Epicmafia community right now, and I am the first in line among these people, has an unfortunate reputation of being not the friendliest. I think newer players that do not understand the game often feel a little abashed when they make mistakes and much more experienced players (like myself) jump on them for it postgame. Reports are often thrown about too much for what are simply mistakes (not all the time, but sometimes). I think the EM community would be so much better if we were able to realize that mistakes are made while games are played and to constructively offer advice. The positivity needs to start with the more experienced players. There isn't always one specific way to do things. Sometimes no lynching in a situation is the best move, other times you should lynch and hope the mafia hits the doc save. Sometimes it's best to cc cop, other times it isn't. But can we stray away from calling someone an idiot and "" for suggesting something we don't agree with? There would be such a more positive attitude around the site in general if we did this. There are definitely some players that are nice and offer constructive criticism (and the reality is that mafia in general can get many people emotionally riled up while trying to defend themselves and argue with others), but the majority of others (myself included) are not like that.

Next I'd like to encourage others to branch out a bit more as far as setups you play. Especially in competitive. If Jan 2.0 gets comped along with a lesser known setup, I guarantee that Jan 2.0 will get played 500 times in a round while, for example, a lesser known variant of Trust Each Other will get played three times. Learn new things! Try setups with roles you're not familiar with. I think it'll be more fun that way.

Finally, shoutouts to the players I've met on here. It's been good to at least establish some "friendships" (as loosely as I would define that on a glorified online chat room) with some cool players on here. My encouragement for you all would be to lighten up some. It is, after all, only a game.

I hope everyone here is able to balance Epicmafia with your responsibilities in life. I'm currently not able to and have felt this way for a bit now, but have been too afraid to quit until this point. I wish all of you the best of luck.

Desynch/ZeeGE